Washington
CNN
—
Hours after taking office, President Donald Trump terminated the Secret Service assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton, Bolton confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.
Bolton, who left the Trump White House in November 2019, needs continued protection from U.S. Secret Service because of Iranian threats against him. Trump initially ended his protection after leaving his administration during the first term, but President Joe Biden reinstated it once he took office.
“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump made this decision,” Bolton said in a statement to CNN. “Despite my criticism of President Biden’s national security policy, he nevertheless made the decision to extend Secret Service protection to me again in 2021.”
“The Justice Department filed charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hitman to target me. This threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of a person who attempted to organize the assassination of President Trump. The American people can judge for themselves which president made the right choice.”
Bolton, who held senior national security posts in the Bush administration, has long been known for his hawkish stance toward Iran. He strongly opposed the 2015 nuclear deal, which imposed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from U.S. sanctions, and he called on Trump to withdraw from the deal after it entered into force. function.
Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in May 2018, about a month after Bolton was hired as national security adviser. Trump fired Bolton in September 2019 after saying he “strongly disagreed with many” of Bolton’s positions.
Bolton published a book in 2020 in which he claimed that the president was woefully underinformed on foreign policy issues, obsessed with shaping his media legacy, and that Trump had asked leaders in Ukraine and China to help him win the 2020 election. Trump responded by threatening to imprison Bolton, repeating a threat he regularly makes to people who cross him.
After the assassination of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani on Trump’s orders in early 2020, the Justice Department said the Iranian government was seeking revenge against senior Trump officials involved in the assassination, including Bolton, even if he was not part of the administration at the time. of the deadly strike.
In August 2022, the Justice Department indicted an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing them of trying to organize Bolton’s murder. Prosecutors said the plot against Bolton was “likely in retaliation” for Soleimani’s assassination.
On Monday, one of his first acts in office, Trump revoked the security clearance of Bolton — one of several former national security officials who lost their clearances with the new president’s signature.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
CNN’s Michael Williams contributed to this report.
